1. Technical Field
The present invention relates in general to a system and method for dynamically discovering access issues related to resources, such as databases. In particular, the present invention relates to a system and method for dynamically discovering and managing expired passwords used to access a resource, such as a database.
2. Description of the Related Art
User identifier and password management on complex systems, such as on a database management system (DBMS), pose challenges to organizations and administrators. While utilities are often available on these systems, the current technology is unable to accommodate complex situations often faced by organizations and administrators. Current utilities allow administrators to change passwords, import/export data (such as user information from a DBMS), provide certain levels of reporting, and various levels of tracking. For example, International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) offers a DB2™ database product that includes a password expiration maintenance utility (DB2PEM). This utility enables the administrator to change a user's DB2 password on MVS/ESA systems and provides features that address administration and security. Likewise, Microsoft offers a Baseline Security Analyzer™ (MBSA) that is a tool used to scan for common insecure configurations and provides recommendations with respect to restricting privilege levels Microsoft's SQL server services.
While current solutions are convenient and save administrators time by giving them some level of control from a centralized location, current solutions do not take software applications that access systems into account. Furthermore, current solutions cannot proactively scan applications that will be impacted by password expiration, inform the administrator that action is needed, nor provide automated resolution of the problem.
What is needed, therefore, is a system and method that dynamically discovers access issues before they arise. Furthermore, what is needed is a system and method that allows various actions to be performed when access to a resource is compromised.